Russian, French wheat sellers duke it out for Egypt business

While Russia dominated Egyptian grain purchases since the beginning of the marketing year in July, France is starting to break into the market as the euro weakens. In two tenders this week, Egypt bought two cargoes of Russian wheat and one each of French and Ukrainian.
France, which harvested a record wheat crop this year and regularly counts among the world's top five exporters, has a lot of grain to ship. Prices have started to respond, with French grain undercutting Russian offers in both of this week's tenders, though Russia remained a better value in some cases when accounting for freight.
"Current euro weakness makes French wheat very competitive," Stephane Bernhard, a managing director at InVivo Trading, said in an interview Wednesday at the Global Grain conference in Geneva. "Currencies are playing a bigger role than in the past because prices are generally low in dollars."
The weakening rouble boosted Russian exports earlier in the marketing year, then the currency stabilised in recent months and the euro's decline accelerated.